I didn't play it a ton, but the mesmer clones didn't do a ton for me. They either tanked a mob or got one shotted and disappeared. I'm sure there is still a ton of tweaking left to do, but that was my initial impression at least.

Mesmer Clones seem put to better use just by Shattering them for more Damage or Distortion to protect yourself in melee.

Yeah, if you're playing a mesmer with the mindset of a pet class or something, then you're doing it wrong. :P Shater, shatter, shatter.

I thought each weapon set for the Thief has their own initiative but you only regenerate imitative with the weapon set your currently using. Which meant that when both your Weapon Sets are full of Initiative, you can spike a lot of damage by switching between them.

Or did that change in the latest beta this past weekend?

I... actually don't recall either way. That would be both good and bad. The spike potential would of course be nice, but if you really wanted to use a skill from your second moveset and had switched when you were low on initiative... well, I suppose there's the myriad of initiative restoring skills and mechanics, then.

Welp, this beta event certainly is a lot more stable than the first one. I've been able to crank up my settings a pretty good bit compared to the last time. Well, except for Divinity's Reach and the Black Citadel, I have to tune it down a bit there. I have no idea why I have to lower it for those places and not Hoelbrak.

Looks like they changed mesmer illusions around a bit, too. Or maybe I'm crazy. :P But it seems like they do a lot more damage than they used to, and it looks like shattering them does less. Which isn't bad, because the first time around it was best to shatter the hell out of them as soon as possible.

The biggest change was setting up a tier system for the abilities you use your skill points on. You can't just pick and choose at will anymore. Which is probably gonna be a good change, but I really wanted to get a flamethrower for my engineer this time around but couldn't. :P